One for the good guys!A little bird at the courthouse tells us that yesterday was the hearing date for the tagger who painted Wilson Avenue red in June.
The tagger (an Uptown resident with no known gang affiliation) did his thing on several properties along the 1100 block of Wilson, including Nick's Uptown, the ATM next to it and adjoining properties.
Exhausted by his efforts, he put down his red spray paint can and went into Nick's for an after-work drink. The staff at Nick's noticed his BRIGHT RED PAINTED HANDS and called the police. The spray paint can was taken as evidence.
Yesterday in court, a representative from Jay Bomberg properties showed up as the "injured party." Without her presence, the case would have been thrown out and the tagger would have been released free and clear. There were also a police officer and several court advocates there for the case.
The Bomberg rep showed up with photos of the damage and a DVD showing footage of the tagger in action, taken from various security cameras. Due to her presence and the overwhelming evidence, the tagger copped a plea rather than risk going to trial.
The Public Defender suggested six months probation and 40 hours community service. The Bomberg representative nixed that, saying that it took at least 40 hours to clean up the damage. She required a plea of "guilty," and requested 100 hours of community service, preferably doing graffiti removal.
The final sentence was a guilty plea (handy if he's caught tagging again), 6 months supervision, and 80 hours of community service in a work service program, doing whatever labor and tasks the program is assigned, which can't be specified by the court.
All in all, a good day in court.
I have to say, that's a good job by the Bomberg Property and the rep to request more community service time.
ReplyDeleteIt seems they are trying to be a good neighbor.
Does anyone want to comment on the offender? Reading through the original post on this matter the message board was flooded with lots of provocation. Maybe it was from the same person? Could it be connected? Does anyone know why the offender decided to go on a graffiti rampage?
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that the offender probably isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer (i.e., going in to drink at a place he's freshly covered with red paint), and that the "rampage" and timing is known only to him.
ReplyDeleteTo Bomberg Property and the rep that they sent - Well Done!!
ReplyDelete"It seems they are trying to be a good neighbor."
ReplyDeleteIt would, indeed.
A nod to Bloomberg Property for doing the right thing.
I was trying to find a URL/email address for Bomberg but nothing was coming up in Google except for an address on Wilson. It would be nice to shoot them a personal email thanking them. That goes a long way, does anyone have email/contact info?
ReplyDeletejimo
info@bombergpropertymanagement.com
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bombergpropertymanagement.com/index.html